November CCL, Signups/Round 1 - The Opal Hoard

[void_nothing]

CCL November Signups/Round 1

"The Opal Hoard"


Smuggler's Share, taken from Artbase, by Aaron Miller and Wizards of the Coast

Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!

Theme

It's Predefined Tokens Month here at the CCL. There's a lot I can say about how R&D uses these tokens - Food, Clues, Treasures, and their various ilk - as a design tool they've leaned heavily on in recent years, for both good and ill. I do hope we can spark some discussion. For now, let's just see what WE can do with them.

Challenge

Design a white, blue, or black card that can create Treasure tokens.

Clarifications

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• Your card can be any number of additional colors on top of white, blue, and/or black.
• Make sure to include a rarity.

Anyone can enter this first round! Your submissions are due Tuesday, November 8th, 23:59 EST.

Schedule

• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (November 1st-8th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (November 9th-16th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due November 18th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (November 19th–22nd)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due November 24th)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (November 25th–28th)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due November 30th)
• Final (December, winner determined by public poll)

Please note: For this month we will continue asking first and second round contestants to evaluate seven other contestants during the critique and top 3 period, in order to increase the total number of evaluations each contestant gets.

[netn10]

Journey to the World's Edge 1W
Restricted Sorcery (Mythic)
(You can't have more than one copy of restricted cards.)
If it's the first time you cast this spell, put it on bottom of your library and draw a card. Otherwise, you gain 20 life and create ten artifact treasure tokens.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Chrysopoeia
Sorcery (U)
Scry 2, then surveil 2, then mill a card. If an artifact card was milled this way, create a Treasure token, otherwise put Chrysopoeia on top of its owner's library.
Two parts arcane beliefs, two parts meticulous research, one part obsession, but what's the worth of end product?

[MonoRedMage]

Here Be Devils 3BR
Enchantment {R}
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one. If you can't, sacrifice Here Be Devils and you lose 4 life -
- Destroy target enchantment an opponent controls, then create two Treasure tokens.
- Destroy target nonbasic land an opponent controls, then create a 1/1 red Devil creature token with "When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target."

[marioguy3]

Bird of Deliveries
Creature - Bird (Rare)
Flash
Flying
When Test Card enters the battlefield, create X treasure tokens, where X is the number of creatures attacking you.
, Sacrifice X treasures: Prevent the next X damage that would be dealt to you this turn by attacking creatures.
The test of a bird's patience is when it faces adversity. But it always delivers the resources, some way, somehow.
3/4

[slimytrout]

Dwarven Quartermaster 2RW
Creature - Dwarf Advisor (R)
When Dwarven Quartermaster enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each Mountain you control and a Food token for each Plains you control.
"Dig in the darkness, farm in the light.
Grow in wealth and grow in might."
-Dwarven saying
4/4

[void_nothing]

Going to extend this round by 24 hours - now's your best chance to enter!

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Overspending Mercenaries 3W
Creature - Human Mercenary (Rare)
First strike
When Overspending Mercenaries enters the battlefield, create two Treasure tokens and each opponent creates four Treasure tokens.
4/4

[void_nothing]

Alright, please critique and T3 all the other contestants.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

netn10

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Journey to the World's Edge 1W
Restricted Sorcery (Mythic)
(You can't have more than one copy of restricted cards.)
If it's the first time you cast this spell, put it on bottom of your library and draw a card. Otherwise, you gain 20 life and create ten artifact treasure tokens.

It is a hard card to evaluate for me, since I am not sure what would be considered a fair way to play this card. The obvious play pattern is t3: cast this → t4: At opponent's end step tutor for it, then cast it again, then whatever you want with your twelve mana. However, it does not end here. Let us say we used Mystical Tutor and has access to blue. It is possible that we have a Snapcaster Mage and since this card goes to graveyard and gives us Treasures in any subsequent casting, we can now flashback it to give us another ten Treasures for the investment of four mana. Not to mention we just gained 40 life. Maybe we should use green selfmill and Regrowth and Reclaim effects, which after first casting become quite disgusting with this card? Maybe the proper way is to use scrying en masse? Because if the intended use is to just wait for it, then it becomes boring, but almost any way to actually accelerate it leads to problems. Either the deckbuilding challange or the rewards have to be tweaked, but I have no idea in what direction to go with this. Or maybe it should self-exile in any subsequent casting?
I am also not sold in Restricted mechanic. If not used as a hard balancing tool, like it is used in Vintage, then the only interesting option leads towards deck manipulation and counting the number of casts, which maybe can be done right, but the example here is not really persuasive.

MonoRedMage

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Here Be Devils 3BR
Enchantment {R}
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one. If you can't, sacrifice Here Be Devils and you lose 4 life -
- Destroy target enchantment an opponent controls, then create two Treasure tokens.
- Destroy target nonbasic land an opponent controls, then create a 1/1 red Devil creature token with "When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target."

TBD

marioguy3

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Bird of Deliveries
Creature - Bird (Rare)
Flash
Flying
When Test Card enters the battlefield, create X treasure tokens, where X is the number of creatures attacking you.
, Sacrifice X treasures: Prevent the next X damage that would be dealt to you this turn by attacking creatures.
The test of a bird's patience is when it faces adversity. But it always delivers the resources, some way, somehow.
3/4

TBD

slimytrout

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Dwarven Quartermaster 2RW
Creature - Dwarf Advisor (R)
When Dwarven Quartermaster enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each Mountain you control and a Food token for each Plains you control.
"Dig in the darkness, farm in the light.
Grow in wealth and grow in might."
-Dwarven saying
4/4

TBD

kwanyeegor-ii

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Overspending Mercenaries 3W
Creature - Human Mercenary (Rare)
First strike
When Overspending Mercenaries enters the battlefield, create two Treasure tokens and each opponent creates four Treasure tokens.
4/4

If I think about this as a four-mana first-striker with an upside, then it compares awfully to recent Defiler of Instinct, but even uncommons from earlier times such as Valor or Rhox Pikemaster still look as more reasonable options. If I look at this as a two-mana 4/4 first strike with a downside, it looks somewhat better, but in a proper deck Dragonkin Berserker would give much more in terms of bodies in similiar tempo. While the 4/4 body with first strike is a good rate, it has no bussiness being rare nowadays, whether it is reasonable or not.
Giving opponents mana is not as dangerous as giving them cards, since it is a public information, but it is still a drawback that can make spectacular blow-outs. Since this gives all opponents Treasures, this card becomes much worse in multiplayer - changing it to target opponent would give it some political edge at least. Finally, I personally dislike rapid mana generation, since it makes for quicker, more lopsided games and I like my Magic grindy. No matter the taste, there is a collosal difference between getting 0 Treasure and giving two to opponents and getting two Treasures and giving four. Most six-drops on turn four would be dangerous, but an eight-drop at the same turn easilly takes over the game.

Top 3

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TBD

[marioguy3]

netn10: This is a strange card. I can see it either being a do-nothing card or a busted card depending on the synergies.

Lord Asborn Schutta: This seems strong, a spell that can consistently put itself back on top of the library. At least it doesn't cantrip. The ability to look at 4 cards deep and rearrange them in some fashion can be strong.

MonoRedMage: This thing sure can create some power creatures. I like the flavor of it though.

slimytrout: Treasures being the main feature of this creature hits the spot nicely. It's not too busted at four mana and has fun applications with flicker strategies.

kwanyeegor-ii: This is a group hug card through and through, although giving yourself half the treasure amount feels like the card won't see play anywhere. I might like a taxing effect (you being the one to pay) to stop the opponents getting treasure tokens. Maybe a cost of two mana to avoid giving treasures away, or you might have your opponents treasures enter tapped to prevent some self-feel bads.

Top 3:

3rd place: Lord Asborn Schutta:
2nd place: MonoRedMage
1st place: slimytrout

[slimytrout]

netn10

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I admire the innovativeness (is that a word?) of this card, but I have to admit I do not like the direction it's going. I don't believe cards should be restricted in four-of formats, I don't like the fact that you can Remand this back to your hand in order to get the bonus next turn, and I don't think that it currently works as written since it has to track the card through a hidden zone, although this last could be fixed with better templating.

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Fun name, but I'm not so sure the card would be fun. It's not very strong if used for treasure-making but seems better in some sort of graveyard combo deck where you just cast this every turn to put more cards in your graveyard.

MonoRedMage

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Hm, this card is fairly good in certain matchups and unplayable in others. I don't really love repeatable land destruction, even if it does only hit nonbasics, and I'm not sure black should be getting repeatable enchantment destruction.

marioguy3

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I don't love the fact that there are multiple X's representing multiple things (in fact, I think the second ability could have been tightened up/made stronger by just being "Sacrifice a Treasure: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to you this turn") and you accidentally left "test card" as the name in the text, but overall I like it.

kwanyeegor-ii

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4-mana 4/4 first strike is strong, but the fact that it gives your opponents so much treasure means it's pretty hard to justify playing it, especially since they probably get to use the treasure before you, unless you have something cheap to play.

T3

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1. marioguy3
2. MonoRedMage
3. kwanyeegor-ii